Etude de la combustion de gaz de synthèse issus d'un processus de ...

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point today to be difficult to reproduce in the laboratory that was routine in the decade
of 40.
Figure 2.2 - Inland Sea and converted vehicles to run on syngas
1945: After end of Second World War, with plentiful gasoline and diesel available at low
cost, gasification technology lost glory and importance.
tel-00623090, version 1 - 13 Sep 2011
1950 - 1970: During these decades, gasification was a “Forgotten Technology ". Many
governments in Europe felt that consumption of wood at the prevailing rate will reduce
the forest, creating several environmental problems.
The year 1970´s brought a renewed interest in the technology for power generation at
small scale. Since then work is also concentrated to use fuels other than wood and
charcoal.
Currently, due to the rising petroleum prices and the environmental problems
associated with its use, it becomes imperative to search for alternatives and
gasification is historically the chosen technology.
2.1.2 Gasification process
Gasification is the thermo-chemical conversion of a carbonaceous fuel at high
temperatures, involving partial oxidation of the fuel elements (Higman and Burgt,
2003). The result of the gasification is a fuel gas - the so-called syngas - consisting
mainly of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H 2 ), carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), water vapor
(H 2 O), methane (CH 4 ), nitrogen (N 2 ), some hydrocarbons in very low quantity and
contaminants, such as carbon particles, tar and ash.
Gasification takes place in a reactor, called gasifier, in the presence of an oxidizing
agent that may be the pure oxygen, steam, air or combinations of these. Inside the
gasifier, regardless of their nature, occur simultaneously in several cases for which
there is still no consensus within the scientific community. Three or four steps are
usually referred to. In the context of thermal sciences, the reactions of gasification are
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